Rotary position milling

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In this lesson, we'll learn about rotary position milling.

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After completing this lesson, you'll be able to use tool orientation and create roughing and finishing toolpaths.

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In Fusion 360, we want to get started with the supply data set three plus one.

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We're going to navigate to the manufacturer workspace.

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We're going to change our units to inch and begin creating a new setup.

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For this part, we want to expand our models, and we want to expand the body's folder and note that we have a stock body.

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So for our stock, we're going to set this to from solid and use our stock body.

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For the coordinate system, it's important to understand whenever we're adding a fourth axis or an A axis to a machine,

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this is going to be rotating about X.

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If you have a different setup or a different orientation on your machine, then you need to make sure that it's set up based on that.

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But for our example, we're going to assume that our A axis is rotating about X.

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So in this case whether it's on the left side or the right side of the table or determine whether or not,

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X is pointing away from the part or into the part.

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For our example, we're going to assume that X is pointing away from the part,

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in this orientation as if the fourth axis is mounted on the left side of our table as we're looking at the machine.

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From here, I need to make sure that my Z and my X are in the correct orientation.

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So right now I need Z to be pointing opposite of X.

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I'm going to do this by holding down my left mouse button over X, and then I'm going to flip my Z axis.

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Once again I need to make sure that X is pointing in the right direction.

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So for X, I'm going to select the default Z axis, and then I need to make sure it's in the correct orientation as well.

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So this is going to be at the center of my part, at the far right hand side.

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Again, based on the orientation that I'm assuming.

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From here in my post process section, I'm going to add a comment of three plus one,

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and I'm going to set my WCS offset to one which represents G54 on my machine.

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I'm going to say ‘okay’, and now that I have my coordinate system setup, I can begin programming.

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When we're taking a look at three plus one Programming,

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what we're doing is we are rotating the part a specific amount, and then we're using our traditional 2D or 3D toolpaths.

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So for this example, we're going to start by using a 2D pocket.

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Typically when you started 2D pocket, you first select a tool.

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We're going to go into our multi-axis tools and select tool number six, which is a quarter inch flat and use it on aluminium roughing.

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Once we have our tool selected, we generally would come in and begin selecting some geometry.

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You'll notice that when I try to select a chain, it's going to be based on the current tool axis, which is positive Z.

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So I need to start by setting my tool orientation relative to this face.

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So I'm going to select the face for Z.

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But note that X is not in the correct orientation.

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It's based on our setup WCS in terms of its location, but X really needs to be pointing away based on the default coordinate system.

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So you see here what we're going to be sending the controller is going to be a rotation about A.

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It's going to give it an A axis degree rotation which means that when I'm setting up my tool orientation,

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I must represent the movement of my coordinate system based on that rotation at the center of my part.

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Now that I have that selected, I can come back and select the face that I want to machine.

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I'm going to assume that this is not only a roughing but also a finishing operation, so I'm going to not leave any stock behind.

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And I'll say ‘okay’ to create my toolpath.

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Whenever we're dealing with these three plus one or this multi axis positioning,

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what we really want to make sure we understand is that process of setting up the tool orientation.

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Because we've already done that, I can right click on my 2D pocket, and I can create a Derived operation for something else that I need to do.

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For example, a 2D contour.

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From here, I need to select an appropriate tool.

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For us, it's going to be our tool number 11 chamfer mill, and then I want to select my geometry.

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Now by default when I derived it, it automatically brought in those chains but note that the coordinate system for my tool is automatically set up.

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I'm going to select the lower edge of these chamfers, and then I'm going to go to my passes and note that I have a chamfer option.

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I'm going to leave it at zero and say ‘okay’ and allow it to cut those chamfers.

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Now since I selected a chamfer mill, it gave me those additional options in the 2D contour.

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I could also use a 2D chamfer mill operation.

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That either would be just fine, but in this case a 2D contour is fine because there's really no other geometry I'm worried about colliding with.

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So I'm going to just simply use the 2D contour with that chamfer option.

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I am going to add a small amount of tip offset,

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allowing the tool to come down just a little bit farther to make sure that the end of the tool is slightly below that edge.

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So this is a quick orientation in setting up our tool for a multi-axis position.

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Now, once again, the important considerations here are to understand the location of the coordinate system and its orientation.

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We need to make sure that with this fourth or A axis that we're rotating about X.

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The orientation of X on your table is going to be based on the position of this fourth axis as it's added.

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So in my case again, I'm assuming that it's on the left side of me as I'm looking at the machine, so X plus is pointing to the right.

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This is extremely important that we understand that coordinate system set up,

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as well as the fact that our tool orientation must be represented in the coordinate system shift.

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We're only rotating about X.

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We're not changing y it has to be in the same orientation because that's what's going to get sent to the controller.

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Once we're done setting up this first 2D pocket and 2D contour, let's go ahead and save the design, so we can move on to the next step.